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Femminielli or femmenielli (singular femminiello, also spelled as femmeniello) are a population of people who embody a third gender role in traditional Neapolitan culture. This term is culturally distinct from trans women, and has its own cultural significance and practices. This term is not derogatory; instead femminielli are traditionally believed to bring good luck.
Many consider femminiello to be a peculiar gender expression deeply tied to the history of the city of Naples, despite a widespread Sexual binary. The cultural roots that this phenomenon is embedded in confer to the femminiello a socially legitimized status, including holding particular familial, ceremonial, and cultural roles. Achille della Ragione, a Neapolitan scholar, has written of social aspects of femminielli. "The is usually the youngest male child, 'mother's little darling,' ... he is useful, he does chores, runs errands and watches the kids."
In 2009 the term femminiello gained some notoriety in Italian media after a Naples native femminiello Camorra mobster Ketty Gabriele was arrested. Gabriele, who had engaged in prostitution prior to becoming a Caporegime, has been referred to both as a femminiello and transessuale or trans in Italian media.
Some scholars, including Eugenio Zito of the University of Naples Federico II, propose that the femminielli "seem to confirm, in the field of gender identity, the Postmodernism idea of continuous modulation between the masculine and the feminine against their dichotomy."
The history of the femminielli may trace back to a real, non-mythological group: the Galli (also called Galloi or Gallae, singular gallus), a significant portion of the ancient priesthood of the mother goddess Cybele and her consort Attis. This tradition began in Phrygia (where Turkey is today, part of Asia Minor), sometime before 300 BC. After 205 BC, the tradition entered the city of Rome, and spread throughout the Roman Empire, as far north as London. They were eunuchs who wore bright-colored feminine sacerdotal clothing, hairstyles or wigs, makeup, and jewelry, and used feminine mannerisms in their speech. They addressed one another by feminine titles, such as sister. There were other priests and priestesses of Cybele who were not eunuchs, so it would not have been necessary to become a gallus or eunuch in order to become a priest of Cybele. The Gallae were not ascetic but hedonistic, so castration was not about stopping sexual desires. Some Gallae would marry men, and others would marry women. The ways of the Gallae were more consistent with transgender people with gender dysphoria, which they relieved by voluntary castration, as the available form of sex reassignment surgery.Kirsten Cronn-Mills, Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices (2014, ), page 39Teresa Hornsby, Deryn Guest, Transgender, Intersex and Biblical Interpretation (2016, ), page 47Raven Kaldera. Hermaphrodeities: The Transgender Spirituality Workbook. Hubbardston, Massachusetts: Asphodel Press, 2008. P. 174-179.
Contemporaries who were not Gallae called them by masculine words, Galloi or Galli (plural), or Gallus (singular). Some historians interpret the Gallae as transgender, by modern terms, and think they would have called themselves by the feminine Gallae (plural) and Galla (singular).Laura Anne Seabrook, "About this comic." Tales of the Gallae. http://totg-mirror.thecomicseries.com/about/ The Roman poet Ovid (43 BC – 17 AD) says their name comes from the Gallus river in Phrygia.Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult, translated by A. M. H. Lemmers, London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.85, referencing Ovid, Fasti IV.9
Phrygians and Romans believed the Gallae had spiritual powers to tell the future, bless homes, have power over wild animals, bring rain, and exorcise evil spirits. The Roman public viewed them with a mixture of awe and contempt, seeing them as practicing shocking foreign customs, so they were just as often honored as they were harassed and politically persecuted. They were not allowed to be Roman citizens, and vice versa.Maarten J. Vermaseren, Cybele and Attis: the myth and the cult, translated by A. M. H. Lemmers, London: Thames and Hudson, 1977, p.97.
Generally femminielli are considered to bring good luck. For this reason, it is popular in the neighborhoods for a femminiello to hold a newborn baby, or participate in games such as bingo. Above all the Raffle or Tombolata dei femminielli, a popular game performed every year on 2 February, as the conclusive part of the Candlemas at the Sanctuary of Montevergine.
Dall'Orto, Giovanni, Ricchioni, femmenelle e zamel: l'"omosessualità mediterranea".
De Blasio, Abele; (1897); ‘O spusarizio masculino (il matrimonio fra due uomini), in: Usi e costumi dei camorristi; Gambella, Naples. Reprint: Edizioni del Delfino, Naples 1975, pp. 153–158.
della Ragione A. I Femminielli. On-line at Guide Campania. (retrieved: Nov. 12, 2009)
Malaparte, Curzio. La Pelle. Vallechi editore. Florence. 1961
Eugenio Zito, Paolo Valerio, Corpi sull'uscio, identità possibili. Il fenomeno dei femminielli a Napoli, Filema, 2010
Zito, Eugenio. "Disciplinary crossings and methodological contaminations in gender research: a psycho-anthropological survey on Neapolitan femminielli." International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, vol. 7, no. 2, 2013, p. 204+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.uaccess.univie.ac.at/apps/doc/A354578053/AONE?u=43wien&sid=AONE&xid=103bdda0. Accessed 23 Oct. 2018.
The femminielli, from the book "Le ragioni di della Ragione"
The world of the "femminiello", culture and tradition
Peppe Barra – Il Matrimonio di Vincenzella – theatre performance.
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